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Suskind Book: Inexperienced Obama Bamboozled by Summers, Geithner & Emmanuel

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by glynch, Sep 18, 2011.

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glynch Member

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An important new book shows how Obama was ignored and fooled by his three most important advisors when handling the economic crisis. If he loses reelection it will be as a result of his poor choice of who to listen to.

It is a long, well worth reading completely, interesting article about the book, Confidence Men and a summary is.

It is interesting that Frank Rich who like Krugman has been an Obama critic nearly from the beginning has hope that a more experienced Obama no longer just in a daze about the unlikeliness of his election might do better in the future.

"To give readers a super-fast overview, it’s a book, essentially, about Obama’s economic team during his first two years in office. The news of the book, according to some reports, is that Tim Geithner was insubordinate to the president, pursuing his own pro-banker agenda. Or, according to other reports, that Larry Summers was insubordinate to the president, pursuing his own — well, monomaniacal agenda. I’d add that it’s also about Rahm Emanuel being insubordinate to the president, just because. Basically, it’s about the presidency being hijacked by these three guys. And the guys thing is important because they’re pretty awful to women. Anyway, they’re the villains. Paul Volcker, Christina Romer, and Elizabeth Warren are the heroes. Bankers win, America loses. "

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/09/obamas_economic_quagmire_frank.html

#1 glynch, Sep 18, 2011
Last edited: Sep 18, 2011

tallanvor Member

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The book also claims the White House is hostile to women

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/suskind-book-female-advisers-in-obama-white-house-sidelined-and-ignored/2011/09/16/gIQAAOSSXK_print.html

A new book claims that the Obama White House is a boys’ club marred by rampant infighting that has hindered the administration’s economic policy and left top female advisers feeling excluded from key conversations.

“Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President,” by journalist Ron Suskind due out next Tuesday, details the rivalries among Obama’s top economic advisers, Larry Summers, former chairman of the National Economic Council, and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. It describes constant second-guessing by Summers, now at Harvard, who was seen by others as “imperious and heavy-handed” in his decision-making.

In an excerpt obtained by The Post, a female senior aide to President Obama called the White House a hostile environment for women.

“This place would be in court for a hostile workplace,” former White House communications director Anita Dunn is quoted as saying. “Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”

Dunn declined to discuss the specifics of the book. But in an interview Friday she said she told Suskind “point blank” that the White House “was not a hostile environment.”

“The president is someone who when he goes home at night he goes home to house full of very strong women,” Dunn added. “He values having strong women around him.”

The book, due out next week, reveals a White House that at times was divided and dysfunctional.

It says that women occupied many of the West Wing’s senior positions, but felt outgunned and outmaneuvered by male colleagues such as former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Summers.

“I felt like a piece of meat,” Christina Romer, former head of the Council of Economic Advisers, said of one meeting in which Suskind writes she was “boxed out” by Summers.

Dunn told Suskind that the problems began during the 2008 campaign. At one point she was viewing a television ad with other campaign officials and was shocked to see no women in the spot.

“There isn’t a single woman in this ad,” Dunn said. “I was dumbfounded. It wasn’t like they were being deliberately sexist. It’s just there was no one offering a female perspective.”

The ad was later reshot, with women included.

“The president has a real woman problem,” an unnamed high-ranking female official told Suskind. “ The idea of the boys’ club being just Larry and Rahm isn’t really fair. He [Obama] was just as responsible himself.”
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Probably some ****ty employees got fired and didn't want to blame themselves.

#2 tallanvor, Sep 18, 2011
Last edited: Sep 18, 2011
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Orszag for president.

#3 Bandwagoner, Sep 18, 2011
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Elizabeth Warren for president.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pz7ruJw6byQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

#4 Northside Storm, Sep 18, 2011
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Obama dun goofed.

He should have listed to Christina Romer, who did actual research on the Great Depression, but apparently she was shut out.

#5 Mr. Clutch, Sep 18, 2011
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Mr. Clutch said: ↑

He should have listed to Christina Romer, who did actual research on the Great Depression, but apparently she was shut out.
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Tis the story of the Democratic party lately, Clinton pulled the same crap by listening to Rubin and Greenspan over Stiglitz about numerous issues---most notably deregulation of derivatives.

#6 Northside Storm, Sep 18, 2011
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its bushes fault
its the earthquakes fault
its irenes fault
its the tea party fault
its my grey hair line fault
its the chicago bulls fault
its fox news fault
its sean hannitys fault
its gods fault
its racist peoples fault
its chinas fault
its the pakistanis fault
its his friends emmanuel and geithner fault
its the senates fault(oh wait,arent they democrat majority?)

blah blah blah, whatever president, let your wife enjoy her 10 million in vacations while america is losing jobs...

#7 Beavis, Sep 18, 2011

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tallanvor said: ↑

The book also claims the White House is hostile to women

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/suskind-book-female-advisers-in-obama-white-house-sidelined-and-ignored/2011/09/16/gIQAAOSSXK_print.html

Probably some ****ty employees got fired and didn't want to blame themselves.
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Anita Dunn can suck it. Stupid Mao loving dumb ass

And this book sounds like it's just trying to draw up some controversy where none exists to sell copies.

#8 SunsRocketsfan, Sep 19, 2011
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Everybody hopes the smartest guys in the room can save them from their own lack of understanding (priest, doctor, lawyer, politician). But none can foresee all the possible consequences in a huge, complex, interrelated, human based system.

I still think we have the smartest guy in charge.

#9 Dubious, Sep 19, 2011
Last edited: Sep 19, 2011
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Dubious said: ↑

Everybody hopes the smartest guys in the room can save them from their own lack of understanding (priest, doctor, lawyer, politician). But none can foresee all the possible consequences in a huge, complex, interrelated, human based system.

I still think we have the smartest guy in charge.
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But he listened to Summers

#10 Mr. Clutch, Sep 19, 2011
glynch Member

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Mr. Clutch said: ↑

But he listened to Summers
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Got to agree with Mr. Clutch. Obama might be very book smart, but seems overly impressed by the elite and is not perhaps a good judge of character.

As Rich says, let's hope he is gaining much needed experience while actually doing the job.

#11 glynch, Sep 19, 2011
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Obama also left vacancies at the FED. He could have appointed a couple people who favored strong monetary action. (But it's my understanding that Summers didn't think monetary policy would work).

#12 Mr. Clutch, Sep 19, 2011
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Greenwald's take.

But about Geithner, Suskind unwittingly solved the mystery he raised: Kakutani notes that "one top banker quoted in these pages refers to [Geithner] as 'our man in Washington' for helping avert more systemic changes affecting Wall Street."

Geithner wasn't chosen and hasn't remained despite being "associated with the deregulatory policies of the past" and despite being the bankers' "man in Washington." He is empowered precisely because of those facts, as was pointed out even before Obama's inauguration. That Geithner and Summers were empowered after enabling the financial crisis through Wall Street subservience isn't a mystery; it's the explanation. (And just by the way, replacing the word "despite" with the phrase "because of" is -- in general -- one of the most valuable tools for translating Washington propaganda into reality
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Perhaps most notable about the Suskind chapter on which Kakutani focuses is the process by which Obama featured progressive economists during the campaign, only to immediately subordinate them to Wall-Street-subservient officials once in power. Feigning progressive leanings for political gain is Obama's modus operandi
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That's why -- after 2 1/2 years -- we suddenly see an outburst of "fighting for jobs" and, now, a call to raise taxes on the rich. He does that precisely because everyone -- especially the rich -- knows it will not and cannot happen. We're now formally in (re-)election season, so it's time again to haul out the progressive music. Some Democrats are honest and cynical enough to acknowledge that Obama is doing all these things purely for political gain and -- because his re-election is their top priority -- to celebrate it even while acknowledging it will never become reality (see here and here as examples). From that perspective, I suppose having him give speeches where he advocates for jobs and taxes on the rich is preferable to his endorsing austerity and Reaganomics as he had been doing for months But whatever else is true, none of this presages an actual change in how the government functions or, especially, on whose behalf it labors. That's precisely why he feels free to advocate such things without alienating his funding base. It's still the government of Tim Geithner and his bosses/owners; election season (combined with rising elite fear of social unrest) just requires a bit more pretense to obscure that fact.
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#13 rhadamanthus, Sep 19, 2011

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When the far right pushes the GOP into protofascist territory, it's easy for Wall Street Democrats to look good in comparison, but that still doesn't change the fact that they're Wall Street cronies.

#14 Raven, Sep 19, 2011
glynch Member

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after 2 1/2 years -- we suddenly see an outburst of "fighting for jobs" and, now, a call to raise taxes on the rich. He does that precisely because everyone -- especially the rich -- knows it will not and cannot happen. We're now formally in (re-)election season, so it's time again to haul out the progressive music. Some Democrats are honest and cynical enough to acknowledge that Obama is doing all these things purely for political gain and -- because his re-election is their top priority -- to celebrate it even while acknowledging it will never become reality (see here and here as examples). From that perspective,

I suppose having him give speeches where he advocates for jobs and taxes on the rich is preferable to his endorsing austerity and Reaganomics as he had been doing for months But whatever else is true, none of this presages an actual change in how the government functions or, especially, on whose behalf it labors. That's precisely why he feels free to advocate such things without alienating his funding base. It's still the government of Tim Geithner and his bosses/owners; election season (combined with rising elite fear of social unrest) just requires a bit more pretense to obscure that fact.
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Rhad.

I feel this is true. A small part of me still hopes somehow that Obama was just foolishly mislead by Geithner and Summers, but I know that was not the case. Suskind is just trying to help Obama out in a backhand way. Better to think he was incompetent than just another tool of big money.

#15 glynch, Sep 19, 2011
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Dubious said: ↑

Everybody hopes the smartest guys in the room can save them from their own lack of understanding (priest, doctor, lawyer, politician). But none can foresee all the possible consequences in a huge, complex, interrelated, human based system.
Click to expand...

When you say none, you mean politicians and the ordinary citizens who pretend to know so much about economics from their superior college degree. Last I checked, corporations and wall street understand this system quite well.

I still think we have the smartest guy in charge.
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If we have the smartest guy in charge, then America is certainly doomed.

#16 Space Ghost, Sep 19, 2011
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Yeah, those derivatives algorithms are so brilliant and all encompassing there is no way they could lose money. Right Mr, Lehman ?

The smart guy knows what he doesn't know. But sometimes you still don't know.

The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

#17 Dubious, Sep 19, 2011
Last edited: Sep 19, 2011
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Space Ghost said: ↑

If we have the smartest guy in charge, then America is certainly doomed.
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Maybe not the smartest, but there is no denying that the guy is brilliant...

#18 Tom Bombadillo, Sep 19, 2011

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knote32 said: ↑

Maybe not the smartest, but there is no denying that the guy is brilliant...
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I won't deny the guy is very intelligent. He's a great politician. He is just not great presidential material. Its a shame Hillary wasn't elected.

#19 Space Ghost, Sep 19, 2011
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Lets consider Mr. Obama and the current list of Republican candidates as the whole set of possible choices.

Then he is the best guy.

#20 Dubious, Sep 19, 2011

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